Metal Mixtape: Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap Australian album cover

AC/DC's "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" has taken up literally hours of my life. It's strange for a single - the breathing sounds on beats 2 and 4, rare singing by Malcolm Young, ridiculous lyrics about being a contract killer. When I tracked down covers of the song, I discovered that AC/DC tribute records are a huge cottage industry. (See here for an exhaustingly exhaustive list.) I have not included every cover of "Dirty Deeds" below, as there are far too many mediocre rock versions. Instead, I've highlighted some of the coolest, strangest, and worst covers. First, the original for reference.

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (AC/DC)

Bay Area thrashers Exodus covered the song as a bonus track on 2004's Tempo of the Damned. It's a surprisingly good fit; Steve "Zetro" Souza's sneer slots in nicely between Bon Scott's and Brian Johnson's. Trixter's version is as bad as you'd expect. It comes from the Undercovers collection, which also takes on Nine Inch Nails' "Terrible Lie" and the Beastie Boys' "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party)." I have not dared to go there.

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (Exodus)
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (Trixter)

Oddly, two women have covered this song. Interestingly, both are avowed/alleged lesbians. (Note how each alters the line "For a fee, I'm happy to be your back door man.") Girl group icon Lesley Gore ("It's my party and I'll cry if I want to") does a rather bubbly version. It appears on the compilation When Pigs Fly: Songs You Never Thought You'd Hear, which includes, among other things, a duet by Ani DiFranco and Jackie Chan on Nat King Cole's "Unforgettable." Joan Jett's cover kept me awake many nights during my adolescence. It's hands down the best cover of "Dirty Deeds," amplifying the menace of the original with over-the-top reverb, keyboards, and a friggin' sax solo. That vocal melisma at 2:47 is so hott.

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (Lesley Gore)
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (Joan Jett)

Even more oddly, "Dirty Deeds" has yielded not one but two bluegrass versions. The first, from the Back in Bluegrass tribute, is a yawn. However, Hayseed Dixie's cover on A Hillbilly Tribute to AC/DC is a barnburner. (The rest of the album is worth a listen; "Hells Bells" translates surprisingly well to bluegrass.) I've also included an acoustic version from If You Want Strum, You've Got It. (Tribute album titles kill me.) It's a coffeehouse rendition that bowdlerizes the third line to "You want to graduate, but not this bad." Lame!

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (Back in Bluegrass)
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (Hayseed Dixie)
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (Acoustic)

"Dirty Deeds" has also inspired a fair bit of schmaltz. A recent cover on Lullaby Renditions of AC/DC (from the Rockabye Baby! series that includes infant-appropriate versions of Tool, The Ramones, and Metallica) hides the melodies in a miasma of flatted and sharped thirds. On the other hand, a holiday version on Hell's Bells of Christmas is straightforward. The as-advertised cover on The Rock-A-Billy Tribute to AC/DC is enjoyably bouncy.

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (Rockabye Baby!)
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (Christmas version)
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (Rockabilly version)

Electronics and "Dirty Deeds" don't mix well. Buddha Lounge Renditions of AC/DC has a bhangra-style take that isn't too far from the "Macarena." 16 Volt turn in an industrial metal atrocity that so wants to be Nine Inch Nails. Even worse is the cover on 2005's Hip-Hop Tribute to AC/DC. It's just the song with the lyrics poorly rapped. Who greenlighted it???

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (Buddha Lounge)
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (16 Volt)
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (Hip-hop version)

Finally, parodies. Seattle radio personality Bob Rivers did a lovely piss-take called "Dirty Deeds Done With Sheep." Queercore icons Pansy Division didn't cover the song, but they spoofed the album's artwork on their Dirty Queers Don't Come Cheap 7".

Dirty Deeds Done With Sheep (Bob Rivers)

If you've gotten this far, you might as well download the whole shebang. You know you want to hear 54 minutes of "Dirty Deeds."

Metal Mixtape - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap [79.0MB .zip]

Ministry - Keys to the City, Cover Up

Ministry @ Lollapalooza '92

Though Ministry aren't in Chicago anymore, they - or at least head minister Al Jourgensen - still retain ties to the city. Jourgensen is a Blackhawks fanatic and friends with the team owner's son. He retooled a shelved song in red, white, and black, and gifted it to the team. As a Ministry song, "Keys to the City" is crap; as a hockey theme song, it's gold. It's basically an improvement on Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll Part 2," the most annoying sports anthem ever. You can buy it on iTunes, or stream it (and read its cheesy lyrics) here.

Black Betty (Ministry)
Black Betty (Ram Jam)

At Pitchfork, I've reviewed Ministry's new covers collection, Cover Up. It's mostly revved-up '70s classics, and it's a hoot. The thrash-ified traditional song "Black Betty" well suits Jourgensen's bluesy vocals. (For other covers of "Black Betty," including a beaut by Tom Jones, go here.) Ministry's arrangement builds on Ram Jam's 1977 version, featuring the world's loudest hi-hat and lovely Allman Brothers harmonies at 2:49. These covers are a good excuse to revisit their originals, which come from a time when drums sounded like drums and bands sounded like bands. No over-compression, no Pro Tools; even on MP3, these jams sound better than any CD made today.

Ministry - Cover Up (song originals) [55.4MB .zip]

1. The Rolling Stones - Under My Thumb
2. T.Rex - Bang a Gong (Get It On)
3. Golden Earring - Radar Love
4. Deep Purple - Space Truckin'
5. Ram Jam - Black Betty
6. Mountain - Mississippi Queen
7. ZZ Top - Just Got Paid
8. The Doors - Roadhouse Blues
9. Black Sabbath - Supernaut
10. Bob Dylan - Lay Lady Lay
11. Louis Armstrong - What a Wonderful World

Metal Mixtape: World's Shortest Mixtape

I made this mixtape last year for a friend. However, it's so fun that I couldn't not share: 5 minutes, 15 songs. It goes by like a blink, albeit a brutal one (see also the world's shortest music video, Brutal Truth's "Collateral Damage"). Technically, this probably isn't the world's shortest mixtape. But it goes down easier than, say, 30 iterations of Napalm Death's "You Suffer" (back in the cassette days, I knew people who made entire mixtapes of songs repeated over and over again). Sequenced and volume normalized for your enjoyment ~

World's Shortest Mixtape [11.2MB .zip]

1. Leng Tch'e - The Meaning of Life
2. Agoraphobic Nosebleed - Homophobic Assbleed
3. Phobia - Yankee Swine
4. They Might Be Giants - Minimum Wage
5. Genocide Superstars - It's Time to Die (U Scum)
6. Nasum - Rens
7. The Mae Shi - Revelation Six
8. Discordance Axis - Walls
9. Painkiller - Trailmarker
10. Strong Bad - You've Got an Ugly & Stupid Butt
11. Pig Destroyer - Song of Filth
12. Benümb - Gutted Out, Spit On
13. Napalm Death - You Suffer
14. Ghostface Killah - Major Operation (Skit)
15. Tusk - Blood

Metal Mixtape: 1993 - Packaged Rebellion

In this month's Decibel (#40, Dethklok cover), I've written the "Will Consider Trades" column, which constructs a hypothetical mixtape from a chosen year. Reading about a mixtape one can't hear isn't much fun, so here is the actual "mixtape," sequenced and volume-normalized for your enjoyment. (Funny how "mixtape" still has a certain cachet; "mix CD" isn't as cool, and the rather lame "playlist" is where we are now.) The year is 1993, when I graduated from high school. This tape is a snapshot of what I was listening to then; some tunes made it onto actual mixtapes, probably for my then- (and long-suffering) girlfriend, the heroine of the column.

1993 - Packaged Rebellion [95.7MB .zip]

1. Clutch - A Shogun Named Marcus
2. Fugazi - Public Witness Program
3. Danzig - It's Coming Down
4. Entombed - Full of Hell
5. Sepultura - We Who Are Not as Others
6. Morbid Angel - God of Emptiness
7. Death - Trapped in a Corner
8. Carcass - Death Certificate
9. Disincarnate - Monarch of the Sleeping Marches
10. Anthrax - Room for One More
11. Helmet & House of Pain - Just Another Victim
12. Fear Factory - Self Immolation (Vein Tap Mix)
13. KMFDM - A Drug Against War

Through the years, my CD collection has undergone tremendous flux, so now I own remastered editions of some of these records. Though these editions often have cool liner notes and extras, the majority of them sound worse than their originals. Records acquire their mystique for what they are; to alter their sound is to alter the chemistry, however flawed, that yielded the mystique. Remastering these days usually consists of brickwall compression, which is almost always unnecessary. Carcass had a major label budget for "Death Certificate," but jeezus, was the production this punchy and Killswitch Engage-like? Compiling these tunes makes me want to seek out original, unremastered copies of their albums.

Metal Mixtape: Best of 2007

I probably heard over 10,000 songs this year. These 11 kept me returning to them. As I age, I find myself gravitating towards song over sound, at least when making year-end lists and other notations for posterity. Sounds come and go, but songs stay. Anyway, sound in metal has become basically moot. It's hard to imagine sounds faster than Agoraphobic Nosebleed, slower than Khanate, or blurrier than the Crucial Blast roster. Anyone can dial up amp settings, but few have the focus and je ne sais quoi necessary for lasting songwriting. Sequenced and volume normalized for your enjoyment -

Invisible Oranges Best of 2007 [92.3MB .zip]

1. Modern Life Is War - Big City Dream
2. Inked in Blood - Altars
3. Dark Tranquillity - The Lesser Faith
4. Ignitor - March to the Guillotine
5. 3 Inches of Blood - Night Marauders
6. Hacride - Fate
7. Aeon - You Pray to Nothing
8. Watain - Sworn to the Dark
9. Neurosis - Water Is Not Enough
10. Nahemah - Phoenix
11. Long Distance Calling - The Very Last Day

Metal Mixtape: Orion

Speaking of "Orion," here's a collection of all the covers I could find of the song. Unlike the massively popular "Raining Blood" mixtape, this one has only five covers, probably because (a) the song is an instrumental and thus less glamorous to recast, and (b) few dare mess with the masterpiece that is Cliff Burton's finest composition. Still, five of "Orion" is almost 36 minutes (available as a single .zip file and as separate MP3's below). Brace yourself for both interesting interpretations and awful, awful butchery.

Metal Mixtape - Orion [53.9MB .zip]

DJ Shadow - The Number Song

Fellow Bay Area resident Josh Davis slips the intro drones over ferociously funky drums and amazing sample freakery. The burning question I've had for years: did he pay royalties for this sample?

Dream Theater - Orion

Dream Theater's covering the Master of Puppets album live (and releasing it as an "official bootleg") is just one more sign that the apocalypse is upon us. Only one guitar + James LaBrie's yowling + Mike Portnoy's way-too-big drumkit = the thing that should not be. At least LaBrie doesn't sing on this instrumental. When the kazoo-like keyboard comes in at 6:40, try not to piss your pants.

Mastodon - Orion

Mastodon don't screw it up as badly as Dream Theater did, though this cover sounds like a rush job. The mix is rough, and the soloing after the bridge is sloppy as hell. For some reason, the original recording (from Kerrang's Remastered covers disc, which I reviewed here) was terribly quiet, so I did some mastering (i.e., light brickwall compression) to raise the level. It ain't pretty, but this'll be the best-sounding MP3 you find of this cover.

Rodrigo y Gabriela - Orion

Fast-rising Mexican acoustic guitar duo absolutely slay on this cover, turning it into a passionate campfire workout. This is the full 7:45 version, as opposed to the abridged video clip I posted earlier. The recording is phenomenal. Cliff would be proud, I think.

Transmutator - Orion

A horrible, horrible trance version from The Blackest Album, Vol. 3 - An Industrial Tribute to Metallica, which is even worse than it sounds (who the fuck covers songs from Load and Reload???). This travesty is so bad that you kind of have to hear it all the way through. It will probably make you very angry.

Metal Mixtape: Raining Blood

Added 14.07.07 - Reggie & The Full Effect cover of "Raining Blood"

"Raining Blood" is one of my top three metal tunes of all time. Despite the fact the opening tom patterns always fool me, and I can't ever figure out exactly when the guitars come in - when they do, it's air guitar central. That riff is practically classical music, it's so evil and majestic. Evidently, many musicians agree, as "Raining Blood" is one of the most oft-covered metal songs ever. I've tracked down every single studio cover I could find and made them all available in a single .zip file (woohoo! An hour of "Raining Blood"!). You can also stream audio and read about each individual cover below.

Metal Mixtape - Raining Blood [74.8MB .zip]

1. Concord Dawn - Raining Blood

New Zealand drum 'n' bass duo Concord Dawn has a metalhead in its ranks, with this track a blatant testament to that fact. The intro is so long (isn't the melody like "Sunglasses at Night"?) because it's meant to be mixed with another record. With its downward slide, the Slayer riff sounds replayed rather than sampled. The track disintegrates into an unrelated Middle Eastern melody and a pointless guitar solo - but the DJ hopefully would have mixed out by then.

2. Diecast - Raining Blood

Painting by numbers, but not bad.

3. Electrocutionerdz - Raining Blood

"MIDI-core" act from Quebec (with occasional connections to Fuck the Facts' Mel Mongeon) cooks up a cute cover with awful vocals and a hilarious sample at the end. The band's entire discography of over 150 songs is available for free download at its website.

4. Erik Hinds - Raining Blood

Perhaps the most interesting version here - Erik Hinds covered the entire Reign in Blood album on a custom 18-stringed instrument called a "H'arpeggione." He transforms the riff into a Middle Eastern motif, then conjures up glassy scratching noises.

5. Lil Jon - Stop Fuckin Wit Me

Um, yeah. Or, rather, YEEEEEEAAAAAHHHH! A lift from "Mandatory Suicide" leads to a wild, 808-fueled deconstruction. Evidently, Lil Jon wanted to make a black version of Suicidal Tendencies' "Institutionalized"(!) Dig those noisy, techno-esque ride cymbals.

6. Malevolent Creation - Raining Blood

The metal covers here are by far the most boring, though this one is OK. They changed one note in the riff - look out!

7. Player - Angel of Theft

Extremely strange, one-sided bootleg vinyl from Amon Tobin under a pseudonym. I'm a huge fan of his, but this is easily the shittiest thing he's ever done. First, there's an inexplicably long ambient intro that lasts 1:40. Then the track erupts into a breakcore mess of Amens and samples from "Angel of Death" and "Raining Blood." The EQing is terrible; Tobin is so taking the piss here.

8. Reggie & The Full Effect - Raining Blood

Emo-poppers turn in a twee, keyboard-driven version of the tune.

9. Serpentor - Lloviendo Sangre

Argentinian thrashers Serpentor recast "Raining Blood" with Spanish lyrics, which sound that much more evil.

10. Terrorfakt - Raining Blood Remix

A lazy gabber remix that sticks the riff over a distorted kick drum.

11. Tori Amos - Raining Blood

My favorite cover of "Raining Blood" - Amos transforms the song into a haunting, piano-driven, slooooow crawl. This would be the perfect soundtrack for candlelit, sobbing, semi-traumatic sex.

12. Transformer di Roboter - Raining Blood

Ugh. Electrocrap version with horrible digital distortion and a shredded-up arrangement. A waste of bandwidth.

13. Vader - Raining Blood

The best metal cover here. No surprises, no bullshit. Vader slays.

14. Warlord UK - Raining Blood

Ill-starred British death metal band went one album and out, but left this sturdy cover of "Raining Blood." It takes a while to get going, but it eventually achieves liftoff.